Robin Yount Career Retro League
PURPOSE
To provide a draft league that will use the seasons during which Hall of Famer Robin Yount played (1974-1993). Not that Yount is the focus of the league, but his career does span the time frame which will be covered. In 1993 it will become the Chipper Jones Retro League and eventually, we will catch up and no longer be retro.
LEAGUE RULES AND REGULATIONS
I. LEAGUE STRUCTURE
A. The Robin Yount Career Retro League is a Strat-O-Matic Computer
Baseball League consisting of eighteen drafted Strat-O-Matic baseball teams. The pool of players will consist of the NL and AL players in MLB for each season. 1.The league will consist of three, 6 team divisions.
It will be the goal of the League Commissioner to have as many teams run by
human managers as possible. It is the job of
B. Each member of the league has a vote equal to that of each of the other members. Occasionally, the League Commissioner may present a proposal to all managers for a league vote. All proposals for rule changes or other matters must be approved first by the Commissioner before they will be allowed to attempt to pass a League vote.
C. Each RYCRL member is required to purchase from the Strat-O-Matic Game Company the following:
1. The SOM Roster Disk which is currently in use by the League.
2. The annual upgrade of the SOM computer baseball program, including the application of all "patch files" released by SOM.
D. New managers have the right to rename their team nickname and location just before the season after they assume ownership. However, a teams three letter abbreviation may not change. This is to allow tracking of a team over several seasons in the game encyclopedia.
II. ROSTERS, PLAYER LIMITS, AND THE ANNUAL DRAFT
A. RYCRL is a "continuous retro" Strat-O-Matic league. The League will play its first season using the 1974 roster disk, and will continue to use each succeeding season's disk. The league will use "caddy" disks whenever possible.
B. To be eligible for use in the RYCRL, a player must appear on a Strat-O-Matic season disk for the current year being used.
C. If a player disappears from the succeeding seasons disk, that player will become a free agent and may be drafted by another team whenever he reappears on a season disk again.
D. Only players available on the Strat-O-Matic disk will be used. No hand created fringe players.
E. No team will consist of more than forty players at any time between Opening Day and the end of the season. No team shall consist of fewer than 25 players at any time between Opening Day and the end of the playoffs.
F. Between Opening Day and the last set of scheduled games, a RYCRL team may have only 25 active players. All other players on the team's roster will be placed in the minors and be considered inactive. Beginning with the last set of games, all players on a team's roster are considered active for the remainder of the regular season. However, 25-man rosters for the playoffs must be announced by each team at the beginning of the last set of games along with their CM for that last set (assuming they haven't already been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention). Each team must have ten pitchers on its playoff roster.
G. Each individual player will be limited to his real life usage. Batters will only be limited by their At Bats and pitchers will only be limited by their Innings Pitched. Any batter may start any game as long as he has three or more at bats left for the season, even though getting more than three at bats in that game might put him over his at bat limit. Any pitcher may start any game as long as he has five or more innings left for the season, even if pitching longer than five innings would put him over his innings pitched limit for the season. Any player that has reached their limit MUST be put in the minors.
H. Between Opening Day and the end of the playoffs, every team must have at all times adequate depth at every defensive position and pitching.
I. At the end of each season, a team may release any player they wish from their roster. Each season teams may draft until their roster has 40 players. Any players left in the free agent pool after each seasons draft will remain in the free agent pool for that season and the players will not be eligible to be drafted until the next season.
J. The draft order for the first round of the annual rookie/free agent drafts will be decided by a weighted lottery for the first six picks. The previous season's worst team (by winning percentage) will get six chances in the lottery, the second-worst team will get five chances in the lottery, and so on, until the sixth-worst team gets just one chance to win the draft lottery. The lottery teams will be ordered in the first round of the draft according to their order of finish in the lottery.
K. Teams which own first round draft picks that are not eligible to participate in the draft lottery will follow the lottery teams with their first round picks, picking in reverse order of their previous season's finish.
L. After the first round, each round of the draft will be conducted in reverse order of the previous season's finish. The first draft will last 32 rounds. Subsequent drafts will continue until all teams have 40 players on their rosters or the owner of the team chooses to pass for the remainder of the draft. Changed ownership of any draft pick does not change its order in the draft, nor does it change the pick’s lottery eligibility.
1. If there is a HAL controlled team in the draft, HAL will pick for that team. All picks for the first five rounds for these teams must come from a specific list of players drawn up by the league. This list will show the top 60 hitters in Runs Created and the top 40 pitchers in Hits + Walks/IP over the next 10 years. This is to keep these teams competitive over the long run so they will be more appealing to a future human owner.
2. If HAL doesn't choose one of the players from the lists, the player at the top of the list HAL chose from (hitters or pitchers) will be given to the HAL run team.
M. In case of a tie for drafting positions, the tie is broken as follows:
1. Comparing only the games between the tied teams, the team with the worse head-to-head record in its road games from the previous season gets the earlier pick.
2. If the teams are still tied, the Commissioner will break the tie in a random fashion which is found to be mutually agreeable to both interested parties. If the Commissioner is one of the interested parties, then an uninvolved league member will use an agreed upon method to break the tie.
N. Any team may change the status of any of its players. This change must be reflected in the team's list of eligible players ("Promote/Demote Minor Leaguers" in the SOM computer program), and it must remain in force for the entire block. Beginning with the last set of games on the League schedule, ALL carded players on a team's roster are considered active until the end of the season. However, owners should not forget the usage limits.
O. Any player who is eligible for use in RYCRL but is not on any team’s roster is considered a "free agent." These players will remain ineligible until the next Strat-O-Matic season.
III. PLAY-BY-MAIL METHOD
A. Opposing managers will send specialized computer managers for the upcoming set to their opponents. Each CM may be tailored for use with the specific opponent to which it was sent. A copy of the game will be made available on the league web site by the commissioner. Once the current copy of the game has been loaded into an owners computer, that owner should then import the appropriate CM's for the upcoming set.
Any games not played by owners will be autoplayed by the commissioner using whatever CM's are installed.
It is crucial that owners communicate and let each other know who is playing who and when they can expect a current CM.
B. Teams will only use an opponents CM when they play them. There will be no specialized instruction sheets or any other method outside what is available in the game. Owners are encouraged to use the Super HAL pitching and batting lineups.
C. In all RYCRL games, the visiting team on the schedule will be run by its human coach. The home team will be run by its computer manager.
D. When a series of games against an opponent is complete, the game files AND the box scores should be sent to the league list serve. They should be zipped together in one file. The person in charge of stats will update the game with these files.
IV. THE LEAGUE SCHEDULE
A. Each team will play a 162 game schedule, consisting of 81 home and 81 away games. Games will be played as follows:
18 against each team in your division.
6 against the teams in the other divisions
B. Games will be played in 10 - 12 game sets. Two weeks will be provided for these games to be played. This will provide two weekends of play and hopefully provide flexibility regarding play. This should allow the league to finish one Strato season in about four months.
V. GAME RULES
A. RYCRL uses the latest available version of the Strat-O-Matic computer baseball game to play all of its games.
B. The following rules and settings will be used. It is extremely important that you do not change these settings each time you receive the league files. Other settings, however, may be changed to suit your style of play.
Maximum Level Rule
Super Advanced Stealing
Use Miscellaneous Rules
Do Not Use Injuries
Allow GBA on Pitcher Cards
Super Advanced Strategy Charts
Do Not Use Closer Rules
Use SADV Fatigue & Pitch Count
All Max Rules Except For:
Allow Extra pre-1900 Errors
Clutch hitting, ballparks, and weather settings will NOT be used
These settings will always be used even if all options are not available with each Strat-O-Matic season.
The following Lineups and Usage Options will be used:
Draft League Mode - No Rest
Give Scheduled Days Off
Minor Leaguers Ineligible
No Auto Swap-O-Matic
Ignore Overusage
Use of Super HAL Bullpen and Lineup Subs is optional
C. Any manager who attempts to make a travesty of the League’s rules or the spirit behind them will be reprimanded on the spot. Strat-O-Matic is a computer version of Major League Baseball, and as such could conceivably allow a lot of very unrealistic yet perfectly legal baseball strategies. Use of such strategies will NOT be tolerated in RYCRL. If you use any highly questionable strategy in RYCRL, you’d better have a better reason than "it’s my team and I’ll do what I want." Examples of such activity include, but are not limited to:
1. Obviously foolish lineup selection (i.e. batting your pitcher in the leadoff or cleanup spot in every game because you’re ticked off at your struggling team)
2. Using unrealistic strategies in order to save on budgets (such as bunting with a player every time he comes to the plate, or deliberately attempting a lot of foolish steals, or playing a player out of position)
3. Any "anger induced" strategies, such as getting frustrated and intentionally walking ten consecutive batters, etc.
If an owner sees another owner doing one of the above, he should immediately send a letter explaining the infraction along with the box score to the commissioner. If found guilty, the offending owner will be put on probation for the remainder of that Strato season. A second offense that season will cause that person to lose their franchise in the league.
D. RYCRL will use the designated hitter at all times
VI. TRADES
A. All during-the-season trades must be completed before August 1 on the League schedule. Off season trades may be negotiated at any time, and must be completed one week before the beginning of the next season's Opening Day.
B. During-the-season trades may only include players on your current roster, or draft picks from the League's next draft. No during-season trade will be allowed which leaves any team with either more than 40 or less than 25 players. Off-season trades are not subject to this rule; they may leave a team with any number of players (however, they still may not include draft picks from any draft but the next one).
C. No trades will be allowed for any RYCRL teams that have no human manager.
D. No trade will take effect until the beginning of the next set of games after the trade is made. The trade MAY ONLY be updated on the rosters by the commissioner and it will appear in the league files.
VII. POST-SEASON PLAY
A. At the end of each season, the top team from each division will take part in the RYCRL Playoffs. The team that has the best record, but does not win a division title, will also enter the playoffs as a wild card team.
From among the four qualifying teams, the team with the best record will play the wild card team while the other division winners will meet in the other round. Each of these rounds will be a best of seven series. At each level of post season play, the team with the best record will have the home filed advantage and the round will be played in a 2-3-2 format.
The two winners from these rounds will meet each other in a World Series which will be a best of seven contest.
B. In case of a tie for the last playoff spot, head-to-head records will be considered. If there is still a tie, a tiebreaker game will decide which of the two teams involved gets to advance to the playoffs.
C. The playoffs and World Series will be played over an agreed upon internet communication program (AOL IM, ICQ, Netmeeting, or Firetalk) between the two owners when possible. If this is not possible, they will be autoplayed using both teams CM by the Commissioner. If the Commissioners team is involved in post season play, then an uninvolved league member may autoplay the games.
E. As noted earlier, 25-man rosters for the playoffs must be announced by each team at the beginning of the last set of games (assuming they haven't already been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention). Each team is required to carry at least 10 pitchers on its playoff roster.
F. At Bat Limits for individual players will apply to all RYCRL playoffs. Each player’s card which is involved in the playoffs may use up to 10% of its real life regular season AB and IP. This limit is separately applied to EACH playoff series. This rule does not apply to any tiebreaker games or tournaments. There is no AB limit applied to the tiebreaker game(s).
VIII. EXPANSION
A. The RYCRL will expand when a majority (3/4) of the owners agree to do so. This vote will be called for by the commissioner. Expansion should be done only to keep the competitive level of the league and not allow it to become an "All Star" league
B. An owner coming in with an expansion team will have first pick in each round for their initial season. If two teams come in at the same time, the first one to pick will be chosen at random. The other teams will be placed in reverse order of finish behind the expansion teams (as stated above) and all teams will draft until they have 40 players.
